January 17, 2026
Dear Mirowitz Community,
Excellence, as I have come to understand it over a lifetime in schools, is rarely about brilliance in a single moment. It is about practice. It is about intention. It is about showing up, again and again, with care, humility, and courage—one day better every day.
I learned this lesson early in an unexpected place: in a school building in Las Vegas in the early 2000s, while helping Andre Agassi build his charter school. Andre was never interested in talent without discipline, or performance without purpose. He believed—fiercely—that excellence is built through repetition, reflection, and responsibility. You do the small things well. You do them with integrity. And you do them every day. Over time, something extraordinary emerges.
That belief has stayed with me. It is at the heart of what we are rebuilding and re-visioning together at Mirowitz.
At Mirowitz, academic excellence is not a race to cover content or collect accolades. It is a way of being. We teach our students to live consciously, conscientiously, and proudly Jewish. That means they learn to read Torah not only with skill, but with reverence. They learn to approach ideas, texts, and questions with curiosity and seriousness. They learn that learning itself is sacred work.
Our students are taught to treat themselves, one another, and the material they study with kavod—with dignity and respect. Mistakes are not failures here; they are invitations. Struggle is not something to avoid; it is something to engage. Reflection is not an add-on; it is central. Through this, our children begin to understand that knowledge carries responsibility, and that their learning is meant to be used in service of something larger than themselves.
This is why practice matters so deeply to us. Practice in reading closely. Practice in asking better questions. Practice in listening carefully. Practice in caring for the world. Excellence grows when children are trusted to think deeply, supported when they falter, and challenged to keep going.
The story you are about to read from Morah Val Toskin is a beautiful example of this philosophy made visible. It shows what happens when a teacher aligns thoughtful pedagogy with high expectations and deep care. It shows students learning not just how to do mathematics, but how to think, reason, persist, and explain. It shows excellence not as a finish line, but as a daily discipline.
What we are revisioning at Mirowitz is a K-8 experience that ends when the awesome experience of lesson-giving from us is over. Can you start later along the path in second, third, or sixth grade, entering our midst when you are ready for what all we have to offer? Certainly. AND, the intentionality of the model, in the past, present, and future, is that the outcomes we see and expect—especially in forming a Jewish identity and love of self, others, and Israel—sticks when staying all the way through the entire journey, which is at the end of eighth grade.
Our work as a school is not about returning to something old, nor rushing toward something flashy and new. It is about grounding ourselves—together—in purpose, practice, and pride. One day better every day. For our students. For our community. For the Jewish future we are shaping side by side.
B’shalom,
Moreh Brian Thomas